Towards The End Of All
by LadyLily1
Summary: Strange things start to happen in London for which the cause can only be found in Underland. Soon enough, Alice and the Hatter go on a perilous journey to plead with the Keeper of Time himself, the very gentleman Tarrant still has not made up with...
1. Time stands still

After all she had been through, Alice would never have thought she would go mad.

Having visited a world where more than six impossible things were possible, having travelled to the far corners of the world and having witnessed the most exotic cultures, she thought nothing out of the ordinary could have shocked her, no matter how bizarre.

Until things happened that were much more out of the ordinary than the appearance of a white rabbit with a waistcoat.

"Well, it is certainly nice to see that you have come back from your travels safe and sound," her mother said, her tone a little sharper than usual as they sat next to each other in the dining hall, waiting for their tea to be served.

"The sailor and traders, all of them were talking about you, you know. Told each other how surprised they were that a person so tiny and so very... female had been able to breathe some life into the company."

Alice smiled to herself. She had heard similar things being said about her before, after all.

Their maid entered the room and quietly served them, while Alice was well aware of the anxious looks her mother was throwing her way.

Just after the maid had left and closed the door behind her, Alice felt her hand being grabbed and fiercely squeezed.

"I know how this was certainly... an important experience for you," her mother said and nodded her head with earnest vigour, "But couldn't you consider taking care of more important matters now? You wouldn't want to leave your family without an heir, would you?"

"Mother..." Alice tried, "I have got work that needs to be done. For the sake of this family I am keeping the company alive my father worked so hard to build, how is that not important?"

"I understand," her mother said, her tone now desperate, the earlier sharpness gone, "Believe me, I really do, but..."

She let go of Alice's hand and reached for her teacup. Her hands never touched it.

Alice watched in amazement as her mother froze in mid-movement.

"Mother...?"

She blinked once, twice, and then a third time, but what she saw before her did not change. Her other was completely still. When Alice touched her, it felt cool and smooth, like a statue.

Alice scrambled out of her chair and hurried out of the room in search for help, but when she reached the kitchen to look for the maid, she gasped in surprise.

The young woman had been scrubbing the kitchen floor, but she too, was completely still. Even the water that had sloshed around in her work stood still as if frozen.

Alice ran upstairs to the master bedroom, where she expected their other servant to shake out her mother's pillow, but he too, was frozen in his task.

Alice now felt a slight panic creep up her spine, and tried to listen for sounds of someone, anyone, who might help, or even be responsible for this curious happening, but she heard nothing, absolutely nothing.

It was as if the entire world had stopped breathing.

That was when she heard it.

"Alice."

Her name, whispered by a female voice.

She turned around hastily, but only found herself looking back at her from the reflection of the mirror that stood next to her mother's wardrobe.

She stepped closer towards it, too afraid to answer the call, and touched the glass with her fingertips.

Nothing happened.

Alice yelped when the sudden sound of a pillow hitting the bed startled her.

The servant was looking at her quizzically.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Lady Alice?" he asked and cocked his head at the fear in her eyes, but she just shook her head no and stumbled out of the room.

"Alice?" her mother called her, "Alice! This is a very rude way of avoiding a discussion! Where are your manners?"

Alice reluctantly tiptoed back into the dinning room, wondering why she was the one who was being hassled about thing such as this and not her sister who was very much married already.

**

Even though she spent the next few days eyeing everything around her, Alice could not find any sign that what happened had not just been a one-time occurrence, although a very weird one.

Life continued to go its way. The aristocrats continued to play cricket, the ships sailed in and out, and Alice led the busy life of a trader while her mother searched high and low for a person suitable enough to marry into their family.

Eventually she seemed to succeed, when a long-abandoned property in the neighbourhood got sold to a duke who was said to be both intelligent and well-situated, and as soon as his acquaintance was made, Ms Kingsley went to organise a garden party in his honour.

Alice was kept away from her books and calculators and forced to write party invitations and try on new dresses to look her very best for the big event, so that amidst all the excitement she nearly forgot all about what had happened, until a few helpers froze while erecting tents in their garden..

Alice, who had been watching a couple of rain clouds gather in the east, felt silence descend upon the meadow and found that not only the men had frozen, pillars still in hand, but the clouds stopped moving as well, and so did the oak trees that had been swept by strong winds.

Once again not a sound could be heard, no grass crunching beneath her feet as she walked, no birds chirping, nothing.

On her way inside Alice noticed a butterfly frozen in the air in mid-flight.

She entered the house through the terrace and found her mother frozen whilst instructing one of the servants.

In passing Alice eye's caught the tall grandfather's clock in the far right hand corner of the room.

It too, did neither move nor make a sound.

She looked at the time: It was just past six o' clock.

Alice began her search once more, but in the back of her mind she was aware of how pointless it was, after all she did not know what she was looking for.

"Alice!"

The voice again, this time much more urgent and just a fraction louder, and again Alice turned, only to come face to face with the small mirror in the hallway.

She blinked – she was certain she had just seen a flash of silver hair disappear.

**

When she went to bed that night, the voice followed Alice into her dreams, and that was when she finally recognised it.

"Please help him, Alice, he is so very very tired."

It was unmistakably the voice of Queen Mirana.

"Please, Alice."

Alice tried to ask who the Queen was talking about, but as soon as she concentrated on her question, the fog seemed to lift and she woke up.

It was still night.

Confused and wide awake, Alice climbed out of bed. Since it was not proper to be awake at such an ungodly hour, she thought that maybe a glass of milk would calm her.

She went down to the kitchen, where her hands clumsily reached for the opened bottle of milk from the previous morning, then a cup, and poured herself a drink.

When she looked out of the window, the full moon seemed to grin at her. In her surprise Alice almost dropped her cup.

Some very strange things were happening, she was sure of it. As successfully as her work and family had distracted her from all things wondrous, all things unbelievable and all things _mad_, after hearing the Queen's voice, the part of her life that Alice had tried so hard to shake caught up with her.

No, she thought to herself, she was a responsible person now, the kind of person her father would be proud of. Dwelling on dreams, whether they really had been dreams or not, would not do her any good.

"Please, Alice, he is waiting for you."

Her heart jolted painfully in her chest, as the voice brought back another memory – a huge hat, and eyes as green as a forest in spring.

Could it be the Queen was referring to...?

When Alice went back into her room, she caught a ray of moonlight reflected in the hallway mirror.

She thought she had heard the rustling of a dress, but there was no one to be seen.

**

Finally the day of the party arrived.

Alice had been restless all day, a huge number of guests had been invited once again, and while she was worried about the money that had been spent to cater all of them, the situation was far to similar to the last garden party she had attended, her engagement party, no less.

She had promised Margaret not to run away this time, seeing how much it had hurt herd ear mother, but the urge to was stronger than she wanted to admit even to herself.

While she greeted her guests one after another, the tension in the air became almost unbearable.

All of them just waited for the special guest, the dashing young duke who was supposed to sweep Alice off her feet, and while she ignored the chatter the best she could, Alice still hoped something would ruin the party at the last possible minute before she would die from sheer embarrassment.

"That's his carriage," Margaret eventually whispered to Alice and elbowed her hard, willing her to look into the direction the sound of galloping horses could already be heard from.

Slowly the carriage pulled up onto the grassy knoll just in front of the main doors, and Alice felt murmur rise as people pushed towards it, giggling in excitement.

The moment the servant swung the carriage door open was accompanied by a collective intake of breath, and just went Alice thought she had to succumb to the urge of turning on her heel and running from this hideous display after all, it happened.


	2. Pavoon Day

Time froze.

Alice felt somewhat saved, but as relieved as she was, she also knew that this was getting out of hand.

Time had the duty to pass, just like the world had to turn and birds had to fly, or people would go mad, as mad as the Hatter did. Before she could indulge in her thoughts about strange happenings and strange people however, the voice of Queen Mirana called out to her once again.

Other than on earlier occasions, this time the voice did not seem to reverberate within her, something that could not quite be grasped, but she heard it, loud and clear, just as if the Queen sat inside her house and called Alice, like you casually would if you wanted to speak to someone.

Alice found herself running towards the voice, into the house where she skidded and almost fell on the freshly polished floors, then up the stairs.

There it was, unmistakably. The Queens voice came out of her mother's bedroom. Alice pushed the door open, but to her great surprise the room was completely empty.

"Your Majesty, where are you?" she called, but then experienced a familiar sensation: For just a moment, she saw silver hair in the mirror. Alice approached it slowly, and when she looked into it this time, instead of her own reflection, she saw the White Queen standing in front of her.

She smiled when she saw Alice, she smiled, but compared to the huge smile that spread across the young woman's face in seconds, the Queen seemed troubled, her smile sad.

"I am terribly sorry, Alice," she said.

"But Your Majesty, what would you be sorry for? It's so good to see you after all this time."

The Queen's smile became a little more sincere.

"Alice," she said, her tone serious and urgent in a way that Alice had last heard when the Red Queen had been banished, "You will have guessed that my appearance is not a pleasant coincidence.

I am sorry, but I am here to burden you once more."

Alice smile faltered.

"Time has been disrupted. I have tried to contact you earlier, but my time to use the mirror is limited, and I could not seem to get hold of you. What has happened to your world has happened to Underland and every other world there is, and right now, a way to stop this does not seem to exist."

"What does the oraculum say?" Alice asked.

"Without time, the oraculum is of no use. Please Alice, you were able to help us once, please do so again. I am scared of what might become of this world. The last thing the oraculum foretold was Pavoon Day."

Alice frowned.

"What does that mean?"

"It means 'The Day Of The End'. It could be either good or bad, but without the oraculum, I simply cannot tell, nor do I know when it is meant to occur."

Alice looked around her. Nothing had changed. Everything stood still. Confronted with such a desperate and sincere plea for help, the part of her that was still very much the champion of Underland knew that there was no way she could simply ignore an entire world in trouble, even though it seemed like a burden that could prove itself too heavy even for the bravest hero.

It seemed only logical that a solution had to be found, and even if she was not the one providing it, Alice felt like had to help to the best of her ability, not only for Underland's, but also her own world's sake.

"I'll do what I can," she said, her voice firm.

The Queen nodded.

"Very well then. There will be no need to use the rabbit hole."

With that, she reached her hand right through the mirror. Alice took it hesitantly and with a quick tug she was pulled onto the other side.

She shivered, the sensation of ice-cold glass against her skin lingering. Alice looked around. She could still see her mother's room behind the glass, but other than that there was nothing but darkness.

"Quickly," Queen Mirana warned, "We don't have much time left."

She started walking, but her heels made no sound. There did not seem to be any sort of ground to walk on, no path and no guiding light.

There was just darkness.

Alice tried to follow, but fear seized her, disoriented as she suddenly felt, and when she got distracted, looking for any sort of sign of Underland for a moment too long, the Queen was gone.

Alice called her name but there was neither echo nor answer, it felt as if the darkness had swallowed her voice, too.

She started running, but Alice had lost her feeling of left and right, forwards and backwards, and had no idea where she was going.

Cold panic soon was the only thing left, but suddenly Alice seemed to trip from out of nowhere, fell and tumbled into light.

There she lay, flat on her back in one of the brightly white rooms of the queen's castle.

Alice pulled herself up, inexplicably exhausted, and faced herself in a mirror – it was the same mirror that stood in her mother's bedroom.

"I appear to have fallen out of a mirror," she said quietly to herself, and brushed her clothes off.

**

Unlike her last visit, the castle was now bustling with activity, quite unexpectedly so, as Alice had thought that time would stand still as it did in London.

After much asking around Alice found Queen Mirana in the palace gardens together with McTwisp the white rabbit.

"Oh, Alice," he called once he saw her, then hopped closer, "You look as much like Alice as ever."

He looked happy enough to see her, but Alice did not miss the nervous twitch of his muzzle or the way his eyes darted left and right.

"Wonderland seems normal enough," she said to him, but his twitching only got worse.

"I guess. I mean, I'm not sure. You can never be sure, and because of that, you definitely shouldn't lose any time, I mean, you never know what day might be your last, and..."

"...If you scare her to death, it will be her last."

The Cheshire Cat appeared next to Alice's head.

"Chessur," Alice said happily, relieved that he too, seemed to be okay.

"How come you always appear right next to me no matter where I am?"

"Oh, I don't know," the cat drawled, wagging its tail in a relaxed fashion, "It might be the smell of adventure that draws me to you."

Alice laughed.

Seeing how peaceful everything was now, no danger seemed too big to conquer.

"Alice," Queen Mirana who had just been tending the white roses, called.

"Please come here for a moment."

Alice did as she was told.

"We must hurry. I will tell you about your task soon, but there is someone else who needs to hear about it. Please go and get the Hatter for me."

"Sure," Alice replied immediately, overjoyed to be able to meet all her old friends since it made her feel more optimistic even in the face of scary prospects.

"Where can I find his millinery? It must be quite a marvellous place by now, seeing how much he loves making hats and how much he longed to get back to---"

"You will find," the Queen interrupted her, "That the Hatter is sitting outside with his friends near the old windmill, having tea."

Alice face fell.

"But..."

The Queen once again turned to tend to her flowers, but when she looked at Alice again, her expression gave absolutely nothing away.

"Please," she repeated, "Go and get the Hatter."


	3. What a tragedy

**

"I don't understand this," Alice said to Chessur, who leisurely floated beside her as she tread through the woods on the way to the windmill, "What happened to the Hatter?"

"Nothing happened to the Hatter," he answered.

"_Nothing_ happened to the Hatter," he repeated when Alice shot him a confused glance, and she finally understood.

"I'm sure time's at fault."

"What happened to time?"

"I don't have the slightest clue, but that's why you're here, to find out more about that. I never get involved in politics, you see."

Alice nodded absent-mindedly. She thought that usually, neither did she.

The clearing did not exactly look the way it had when Alice had been there last, instead of grey ashes and the occasional tuft of surviving greenery there was now a wonderfully green meadow beneath her feet, and instead of seemingly endlessly cloudy skies she could now appreciate the purples and light oranges of a sunset in perfectly clear weather.

It made the sad windmill stand out even more, with its dirty windows, the door had had broken from the hinges probably ages ago, moss growing through creaks of fouling wood everywhere.

The tea table too, was a pitiful sight, hardly a cup or pot seemed intact, the tablecloth was so stained there was hardly a white spot on it, and some of the scones and tea cakes were surrounded by flies.

Thackery, the March Hare, was mumbling things to himself, juggling with sugar cubes, a trick that prompted the Dormouse to laugh her high-pitched giggle at him.

When Alice's eyes fell on the Hatter, she did her best not to look too shocked. Once again there was nothing left of the energetic and happy man she had come to like. His clothes were grey and dusty as if he had not moved at all in a very long time, but it was the expression on his face that tugged at Alice's heart the most.

There he sat, simply staring into space, unblinking.

His eyes were of a pale yellow, as if he was stuck between moods.

For a brief moment Alice wondered if it was safe to approach him, but she pushed that thought from her mind as quickly as it had come, she would not fear him, not even in a fit of anger.

"Hatter?" she asked as she approached quietly, but the only reactions she got were a surprised glare from Mallymkun and the sound of yet another cup breaking as the March hare dropped it.

Alice came closer until she stood right next to the hatter's chair, but he still would not look at her.

"Hatter, it's me, Alice."

"Alice has left this godforsaken land. She left and forgot it all, forgot it because we're all not real. I'm not real, because if I were I would not be stuck here, but it's her dream, you see? Her dream ended, so did time. Everything is falling apart, ruin, ruin! Endless ruin Endless--"

"Hatter!"

Suddenly the Hatter looked up, looked up and _saw her_, and it seemed as if he was seeing clearly for the first time.

Alice would never be able to say exactly why, but the moment his eyes widened, the orange clearing from them, the moment his clothes perked up and his hair shone brightest orange, just like the way it had done during their last encounter, made her sadder than ever.

She was at fault. How could she have left him?

"Alice," he whispered, and his voice spoke of relief, so much relief that Alice was entirely undeserving of.

He hugged her, there and then, face pressed to her belly, and she did her best to wrap her arms around his shoulders and return it.

She would tell him, one day, that she could never have dreamt up someone as wonderful as him.

"Whatever happened here?" Alice asked once the Hatter let her go, now ever so slightly embarrassed.

"Nothing happened here, silly," Mally snapped, and Alice could feel herself get impatient. What wouldn't she give for a straight answer once in a while!

"Hatter, you know that since everything is peaceful now, there was no reason to wait for me, right?" She spoke very carefully, aware of the way his eyes would not meet hers.

"It's Time, you see," the Hatter finally replied, and slowly the brogue crept back into his voice.

"Oh, what a resentful fellow he is. Look at this."

He took his golden pocket watch from the pocket of his vest and gave it to Alice. She took it carefully, because it obviously held enormous importance to her friend, and it looked highly valuable, too.

Alice held it to her ear, cradling it with both hands like a vulnerable creature, and listened.

Just when she was convinced, it had to be broken, it started ticking.

It was less the ticking of a normal watch, the rhythm different, almost like a heartbeat.

"It's--" he began to say, but at the same moment Thackery's watch began to tick as well, which caused him to shriek in delight.

"Ticking, ticking!" he said again and again, then fell off his chair in his ecstasy.

"They can't just be broken, can they?" Alice asked, "I mean, you have been here for a long time and maybe... if you just took it to a watchmaker..."

When the Hatter raised an eyebrow at her, Alice felt an instant pang of embarrassment.

Things in Underland were never just _broken_.

Alice looked at the sky. It was slowly turning a dark shade of blue. It was be too late to go back to Marmoreal now, so Alice asked the question that still had not been answered, intent to phrase it in a way that _would _give her an answer this time.

"Tell me what time did."

The Hatter got up abruptly and grabbed her hand.

"Let me show you something."

"_I'm _riding the hat this time!" Mally called, but he did not wait for her, pulling Alice along without even saying so much as goodbye to his friends.

**

Had Alice at first fought him, telling him that it was dangerous and demanding explanations, she just gave up after she found that it was no use, and with her, the Hatter gradually calmed down, let go of her hand and apologised.

"You remember the village we walked through on the way to Marmoreal, don't you?" he asked Alice, and she nodded in response.

"Well, they are rebuilding it now."

He led the way, and indeed Alice could soon see the first bits of wooden scaffolding peek up over the trees that surrounded the area now.

"You must be very happy," she said.

The Hatter did not answer.

Once they reached the village she saw why: People were working, but at the same time they were not.

One man was pushing a wheelbarrow towards and unfinished building, only to then stop and walk backwards. He then started over doing the exact same thing, without any result whatsoever.

Others were busy hammering nail into wood, nail after nail after nail, endlessly.

Whatever people did, carrying, hammering, planting, they just kept doing it, and the result was sheer chaos.

"What..." Alice muttered, too stunned by what she was seeing, and the Hatter lay a soothing hand on her shoulder.

"This is what Time has done."

His face lightened up slightly, though, when he went on: "But Alice, don't worry, it's not permanent. It seems that we are all granted moments of rest. For some of them time goes on just the way it usually does, and all of us get a bit of time, usually a few hours a day, to do as they please."

To his disappointment, Alice still looked horrified.

"Why would anyone do this?"

He took her hand again.

"Let's go home."

**

"Tell me, Alice," he mumbled, the stars now twinkling in the skies up above, as their walked through wide meadows and over hills, the world silent, asleep.

"How was it? Back in your world, I mean."

Alice stayed silent. She did not know what to say.

"Did you miss me, like you said you would?"

Oh, how she had missed him. Initially this had been her reason not to return to Underland. She could not just follow every flight of fancy, as her mother would call it, she had to lead the life of an adult and act responsibly, but she had still missed Tarrant Hightopp, the very man who was probably less mad a person than some of the people she had encountered during her travels, every single day.

Alice had considered it a battle against herself – eventually she would have been able to go on, she thought.

The memories, as vivid and wonderful as they had been, had proven difficult to erase, if not impossible.

She was back now, and yet the urgency of the situation threatened to snatch away the opportunity to just be honest with him.

That and her own cowardice.

"Alice," he whispered, and no one, no one would ever say her name the way he did,

"I've missed you a lot."

She surprised him with a hug this time, and he responded in kind, pressing her close and caressing her hair.

There they stood, a grinning moon their only witness.


End file.
